Just in time for Mother's Day and as promised, my minute Mom song, which I entered in the local newspaper contest. profileplayer thanks for all yer votes.
Tired of the sucky myspace player. I'm storing alot of my instrumental stuff on SClick for free downloading. Has anybody used their VIP accounts or sold mp3's thru Soundclick? thanksK Kavin on Soundclick
The local newspaper has a Mom song contest going on for Mother's Day, and I'm a finalist! When you have time would appreciate if you could follow the link, see the video and vote! To Mom thanks! Kavin.
Another "field" recording of me and Darrin jamming. This one is significant to me because it is the first recording of my new National Resophonic Estralita guitar. "Djam"
Recorded at my friend Darrin's house on his little Zoom mp3 recorder. It was the first time we'd played this together, and his mandolin went well with the tune, I think. Cleaned it up in Garageband and added some reverb. It's in my profileplayer I'll probably add it to future copies of "Westward" as a hidden bonus track. peace to all
So I thought it was a bit redundant to have my album in the profile player AND the jukebox, so I cleared out the player. It will now contain works in progress, rough drafts and recently recorded what-nots. There now:
Wildflower Way - my first Garageband recording. A rough draft, a bluegrass protest song about urban sprawl.
Ridglea Jam edit#3 - an excerpt from a live psych guitar jam I did with some friends at a local club (I'm in the right channel playing slide and loop box).
The... (250 more chars)
Rather than start yet another thread on the boards, I just wanted to say I love the new Jukebox and have promised myself to listen to EACH album. At 1-2 hours each day, I should be done by next Feb.! Right now I'm on 11Inch8Track. My only gripe is it doesn't run with Safari, so I downloaded Firefox, and will just keep that open with the jukebox as the homepage. And now it's time to ween myself from RPM, at least until next Feb. Instead of checking the RPM site and reading blogs every ... (146 more chars)
If you think you might be coming out, please go to the link on the left on the home page (scroll down a little) and register. We're confirmed at Mochalux! March 28 7pm CST. We'll be streaming the audio, listening to cds, taking requests, and have an unplugged jam! Hope yawl can come out. Bring a friend and buy a coffee drink or something there to show yer appreciation. Mochalux Coffee & Tea Co. is located in Arlington, Texas at the intersection of Collins St. and Bardin Rd. behind Chi... (280 more chars)
Tonite I'm doing my monthly neighborhood gig at the Borders Books just around the corner, with of course my new album "Westward" featured prominently on the merch table! I'll be playing 2-3 songs from the new album, so we'll test it in the court of public opinion! Yeah, bestaluck... http://www.myspace.com/kavinallenson
Thanks to the RPM folks for upping my space just enough to load the rest of "Westward" in the player! You can follow the links in my description if you wanna download the album or any of the songs. thanks for listening! Kavin.'s RPMChallenge profile
Good luck to all who are still working to get yer albums out on this, the last day. Not to gloat, but mine is well on the way. If you like what you hear on my profile page you can download it from my Yahoo briefcase. Peace thru music.
Kavin.'s Yahoo briefcase Just right click on the track name to download.
Kavin.'s profile
Ok that's it. Even tho I'm a couple minutes shy of 35 minutes, I've got 10 songs. Anything I add would be pointless, from an artistic standpoint. So I just burned the first copy of the final mix, tested on the home and car stereo, the ipod is next but I'm sure it'll be ok. Next is print out the cover and send it in! Thanks to everyone for the kind words and encouragement. If anyone would like to swap cds, pm me with yer address and we'll do it! Ended up with a pretty diverse set of tunes: f... (436 more chars)
Now that I've run this gauntlet and I'm (pretty much) finished, I've come to realize I need some new tools.
Need a good pair of nice but inexpensive studio monitors.
Need some mastering software. I'm running OSX Leopard and Logic Express.
Suggestions anyone?
thanks!
peace to all
Just in case inspiration strikes, I'm gonna hold off and wait a few days to mail it in. I've got the required ten songs, but the total time is 32.4 minutes. I wouldn't mind pushing it over 35, but don't need any more filler than I've already got... Check out my #9 and #10 if you get a chance: "Runnin' Outta Time" Has more to do about our mortality than the RPM deadline. A blues tune, I did my best Tom Waits impression. "Drumznbass" I was mainly just producer on this one, a drum track of ... (237 more chars)
This one is very special to me. I took some recordings of some drum
tracks of my friend Phil, who has long since left this Earth, and
edited them down to the rhythm track heard here, underneath a 12-string
instrumental. He had suggested the title also, o so long ago. It was great playing again with you, my friend. Kavin.'s myspace
This one is very special to me. I took some recordings of some drum tracks of my friend Phil, who has long since left this Earth, and edited them down to the rhythm track heard here, underneath a 12-string instrumental. It was great playing again with you, my friend. Kavin.'s RPMChallenge profile
"Westward" Well that's the title I've settled on. If there is a theme in the songs and in the entire month in general, it is the passage of time... Hope to finish up #8 tonite. Finished up the audio editing on the drum tracks last nite, now for some 12-string and maybe some spoken word. Then this weekend a blues song, "Runnin' Outta Time" and a drumz'nbass tune with my son should make ten. After the month is over and I've sent in the album, I look forward to sitting down with a tall drink... (109 more chars)
I find as the end approaches during sessions there is almost an adrenaline rush, knowing there is a deadline and that time is of the essence here. Hmmm, cool. I have no doubt I will finish, barring any disasters, but the inexorable march of time (hear "Westward") makes the process immediate and edgy. I hope to have the last three songs by the weekend's end, and use the rest of next week to tie up loose ends. I finally figured out how to edit audio in Logic, so I'm cutting and pasting the sa... (700 more chars)
Last night started editing some electronic drum audio tracks to go under an instrumental with 12-string and didj. Pretty tedious, and I keep getting those annoying clicks where I copy and paste a section. I need to figure out (in Logic) just how to loop this rhythm phrase, instead of tacking a bunch of em together. I know it can be done (?). If I can't get this together in another night or two, I'm going to abandon this endeavor and revert back to simple acoustic live stuff. I've still got t... (67 more chars)
I have the (probably) final versions of my first seven songs on the profile. Now it's crunch time. I want to edit a few wav drum tracks I have discovered from an old friend who has left this world, and improvise something over those. Or record another acoustic song demo for a forthcoming "real" album I've had in mind for some time. This past weekend was a wash out: Saturday was a light night gig, and Sunday went to see a Fred Eaglesmith show. But I did manage to squeeze out the ambient guit... (88 more chars)
Knowing that my son was going to come over today and confiscate his electric guitar I've been using, I sat down with it for an improv session, running it through some of Logic's ambient effects. Stylistically the piece is such a radical change from the rest of the album, I don't know if I'll use it. It might put me in that "unclassifiable" genre. Maybe it'll be a "bonus" track. Have to wait and see what I have come the 28th... Also put up new and improved versions of Decent Descent and John's... (86 more chars)
I think this one's the best so far. Inspired by the passage of time, which all us RPM'ers can relate to. I just had my 49th birthday a few days ago, and my daughter gave me a card with a picture of a man driving a car and in the rear view mirror, in the distance, was the Grim Reaper. The punchline, of course, was "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear". That girl sure knows how to cheer me up. So with all that, and lyrical contribution from a couple of friends: "Westwa... (759 more chars)
"Westward" is almost in the bag. Just need to make one vocal fix. Having to devote some time in preparation for a gig this weekend, which is taking away precious time. The final four songs may be a departure from the acoustic instrumental/guitar song stuff so far. May need to start doing the improvised/experimental route as material starts to run low. Then need to do at least some minimal mastering, to get all the songs on the same volume level. Thanks for the well wishes, I'm just abou... (149 more chars)
The (probably) final incarnation. Added: electric guitar part, vocal fixes, EQ. Played with the mastering settings in Logic so it's much louder/compressed than the other songs at this point. whaddya think? Started on song #6, tenatively titled Westward. An actual song with lyrics (from three different writers!). peace to all Kavin.'s RPMChallenge profile
I hate this. Last nite we went out to eat to celebrate my bday, which is today. While I was eating this huge chimichanga, which I had never ordereed before, kept thinking for no reason "I hope this don't make me sick." It did. Stomach flu or food poisoning, who knows? But the sick day I was going to use next week for recording/production I had to use today. Now I'm laying up in bed, feeling like I was hit by a truck, but well enough to write this blog. Could be a song here... On the bright... (189 more chars)
John's Rag is up for yer perusal. John as in Fahey, but the song actually owes more to Adrian Legg, wish I could play only half as well as those guys. This one was simple, one guitar track then rely on effects to fill out the sound. cheers yawl Kavin.'s RPMChallenge profile
Well, I haven't recorded in four days, but today gonna dive back into it. Spent some time yesterday writing(!), with help from a few other sources who've agreed to let me use their words. Developed a chord progression I had recorded in the audio notebook for just this purpose. As the first full week draws to a close, I'm reminded of something a friend said to me when I started this: You can have it fast, cheap and or good- now pick any two. It is amazing how any combination obviously s... (171 more chars)
After seeing the news story of the horrid tornadoes Tuesday, took a shot of tequila and sat down and recorded an improv. Also posted Decent Descent. Keep on pluggin' RPM'ers!
Kavin.'s profile
Just loaded my first two songs into the profile music player. I read in the blogs people were having trouble, but it went without a hitch for me. To my ears, sounds better than my postings on Virb or myspace. Good job RPM! Maybe done with 3rd song tonite! What I've been hearing from yall sounds great! Keep on plugging everyone!
Feb.4 Into the vocal booth (my clothes closet) to record the vocal track for Fly to the Sun. Used a very close mike almost spoken word singing style. Need to borrow son Eric's electric guitar for some coloring then the song should be finished. Let wifey listen to it and it made her oh so happy because she thought I had written the lyrics for her. Had to tell her that Mike wrote the lyrics. Shoulda kept my mouth shut...the more I think about it, I'm thinking in the final week of this when I g... (169 more chars)
Feb. 3 Got quite a bit done, in spite of having to take time out to
work on my house heater and trying to figure out why the phone dont
work (no luck on either, glad it's a warm Feb. in Tx., so far!). Fly to
the Sun just needs the vocal track. Another instrumental, Decent
Descent is almost complete. In the next week I'll add embellishments to
both and have 3 songs in the can by Friday, which will satisfy my
weekly quota. Just wish I could get some lyrics flowing, I guess this
thing will ... (140 more chars)
Feb.2 Got a little bit done in the evening, during commercial breaks while watching "War of the Worlds" (damn TV!). Laid down rhythm and lead guitar parts for "Fly into the Sun" which was great fun. Came across some electronic drum tracks I had recorded of my friend Phil Waite (blessed be his memory), and hope to use them in some way during this project.
Feb. 1 First Song in the Can:Hippolyte! Up at 3am, unable to
sleep. Just normal insomnia I experience about once a week, nothing to
do with the challenge. But it gave me an opportunity to get an early
start and prepare for my daily recording quota. Came home early from
work at lunchtime, and dove into Hippolyte while the house was still
empty, laying down the pedal steel part in a couple of hours (a bunch
of takes, cutting and overdubbing). But there it is! If time allows,
will go back a... (351 more chars)
